Problem on CentOS7 and RHEL7 templates customization

[ricardokatz]

So here is the problem.

I've been trying to deploy and customize CentOS7 and RHEL7 templates. But I'm facing issues with that.

My vCenter version is 5.5 Update 2

After reading some articles about this customization, I've faced that:

1) RHEL7 customization only works with the VMWare Tools from the VMWare. The open-vm-tools and the open-vm-tools-deploypkg don't work with this release. Using a standard RHEL7 installation, with the VMWare Tools from the vCenter works well.

- About the compability matrix: VMware Compatibility Guide: Guest/Host Search

- About the installation guide: VMware Documentation for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

So to the customization work, you MUST install the VMWare Tools from the vCenter.

2) CentOS7 doesn't work with the same steps. Installing open-vm-tools (and deploypkg) or the bundle VMWare Tools have the same result, that is the Guest OS not being customized. After doing some research, I've faced this link: https://lonesysadmin.net/2015/01/06/centos-7-refusing-vmware-vsphere-guest-os-customizations/

- About the installation guide: VMware Documentation for CentOS 7

Actually this works well. Changing the /etc/redhat-release from the 'CentOS [...]' text to the 'Red Hat Enterprise Linux [...]' text works well. So here is my question:

This sounds like something weird to do on a Guest OS. Isn't there any update planned to the open-vm-tools and/or the bundle VMWare Tools that could solve this problem? Reading and following the suggestion of analyzing the toolsDeployPkg.log the error is pretty clear about the Customization Tool trying to get a 'Red Hat' on the /etc/redhat-release and getting an error.

Thanks in advice.

[jasonboche]

I've seen similar with RHEL7 guests in vSphere 6, with the following notes and workarounds:

-Installing a 'minimalist' version of RHEL7 and then installing open-vm-tools (from the RHEL7 DVD yum repo) as well as the deployPkg Tools Plug-in (from VMware following KB2075048), guest customization doesn't work properly. It appears to run but the resulting clone is not unique.

-Installing RHEL7 along with the Guest Agents Add-On, open-vm-tools is automatically installed (from the RHEL7 DVD) as well as the deployPkg Tools Plug-in (from VMware following KB2075048), as well as some maybe other package(s) bundled with Guest Agents whereby guest customization and resulting clones are unique.

The difference between failure and success points to the delta between manually installing the open-vm-tools package from RHEL7 which is failure prone and deploying RHEL7 in the Infrastructure Server role along with the Guest Agents Add-On which works.

(In either method, for guest customization to have a chance to work, you must install the deployPkg Tools Plug-in from VMware following KB2075048 before sealing the template and attempting customization or cloning)

There may be more to it than that but I'm still researching in the lab via trial and error.

EDIT: I've got it sorted. I updated my findings and many other personal tidbits in the following blog post. A RHEL 7 Minimal Install is missing PERL which guest customization requires. The installation of deployPkg Tools Plug-in from VMware doesn't check for the existence of PERL.

http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2015/08/09/rhel-7-open-vm-tools-and-guest-customization/